Chapter 14—Recognition of European Military Service Laws

When Ellen G. White, in response to the invitation of the General Conference, spent two years laboring in Europe (1885-1887) she came face to face with the problems our young men there must deal with in regard to military service. While living at the new headquarters building in Basel, Switzerland, erected to serve as the center from which our work in Europe would be directed, three of the young men employed in our printing office on the ground floor were called to put in their three weeks of compulsory military drill required annually of each young man in Switzerland. There was no counsel given that our young men should resist or disregard this requirement, nor that they should refuse to wear the uniform of their country required in such service. Ellen White’s contemporary reference to the experience is illuminating:SPMS 21.2

We have just said farewell to three of our responsible men in the office who were summoned by the government to serve for three weeks of drill. It was a very important stage of our work in the publishing house, but the government calls do not accommodate themselves to our convenience. They demand that young men whom they have accepted as soldiers shall not neglect the exercise and drill essential for soldier service. We were glad to see that these men with their regimentals had tokens of honor for faithfulness in their work. They were trustworthy young men.

These did not go from choice, but because the laws of their nation required this. We gave them a word of encouragement to be found true soldiers of the cross of Christ. Our prayers will follow these young men, that the angels of God may go with them and guard them from every temptation.—Ellen G. White Uncopied Letter 23, 1886. (Written from Basel, Switzerland, Sept. 2, 1886)

When World War I broke out, Ellen White was well advanced in years and she gave no instruction in writing which would bear on the duty of our men to the requirements of military service. In oral conversation she counseled against defying military authority.SPMS 22.1

Thus through the years we find a consistency in the instruction and counsels which give us a certain assurance that the church as it found its way in the question of the attitude its youth should take to military service, did so in full harmony with the counsels of the Spirit of prophecy, given of God to guide and guard His people.SPMS 22.2

Manuscript prepared by W. C. White, D. E. Robinson, and A. L. White giving in detail a carefully documented account of how Seventh-day Adventists met the Civil War crisis as it related to the draft, the Sabbath, and the bearing of arms and amplified by A. L. White to include all items available from the pen of Ellen G. White which have a bearing on the subject. Extracts of the original draft appeared in the The Review and Herald, November 26, 1936, as a part of the series of articles entitled “Sketches and Memories of James and Ellen White.”—A. L. White.

Ellen G. White Publications

Washington 12, D. C.

June 15, 1956

Offset Sept. 1960